Social Search: Understanding Its Impact on Online Discoveries



Understanding Social Search

Transformed from conventional search engines such as Google, social search has become the digital way of finding not only information but also people, businesses, and brands. Still at a nascent stage, social search augments the architecture of search with the intelligence of the human layer. While traditional search prioritizes algorithmic structures, ontologies, and website hierarchies to rank results, social search goes a step further by factoring in the enormous amount of human interaction and connection across social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Because human intelligence is now seen as the next frontier for improving the relevance, responsiveness, and personalization of search results, we’ve taken the cumulative knowledge of the what, why, and how of social search and laid it out in this deep dive narrative.

The Unique Blend of Algorithms and User-generated Content

The ability to blend the precision of algorithms with the subtleties of user-generated content and interpersonal relationships is what makes social search special. In comparison to traditional search engines, which yield results based on indexed content that matches the keywords a user types in, social search offers a more personalized experience. Results are ranked based not just on technical merits like keyword density or the number of backlinks pointing to a page, but also based on how much traffic the site gets and, even more importantly, who in the user’s network is endorsing or using the content (a search engine’s “people might also like” feature basically lets “friends and family” act like a filter bubble).

Defining Components of Social Search

Unlike a site that contains a lot of content but is poorly organized, a site that’s been shared a lot is a good bet for doing an effective search. To grasp the full extent of what social search is, one must look at its foundations, which are laid down by a handful of defining components. At the foundational level—that of the very nature of social search—one must look at the concept of the “social graph,” which is a visual representation of relationships among users. From there, one moves up in the construction of “social search” to the actual, literal “searching” part of the user experience. And finally, one must talk about the content itself that the user is searching for. There is a lot more to say about the very nature of social search and of personalization in general, but the upshot is that social search offers searchers not only different results but also a different kind of results page compared to the search experience in a decade past.

The Value of Social Search for Brands and Marketers

Brands, marketers, and individuals derive vast value from social search. It is not merely a tool for data retrieval but rather a web of engaging, interactive experiences. From a business perspective, it adds another organic way to reach and connect with customers. And in many ways, it supersedes traditional search as a vehicle for content interaction. When you think about it, the traditional model is one of great underachievement. Someone types in a keyword and . . . a bunch of results appear. From a business investment standpoint, social search is also another worthy adjunct to influencer marketing. These profiles—not just the people behind them—are highly relevant to targeted industries and sector demographics. By and large, social search guarantees that the results appearing in it will resonate more with users because they are focused less on pure algorithmic insertion and more on what’s happening right now in our preference- and behavior-driven society.

Challenges Faced by Social Search

Even with its many benefits, social search has to deal with some not-so-pleasant challenges. Some of the problems unfortunately highlight the limits of social search’s potential. For one thing, social search—just like any other search engine—needs data to function. But in the case of social search, it requires a very certain type of data: information on what, exactly, individual users are doing socially. You might think that access to all this user data would be easy and plentiful. After all, we’re living through a social media revolution. The reality, though, is rather different. Being a good social search engine means not just having access to yourself and your friends, but also access to all the social data being generated on different platforms all over the internet.

Operational Efficiency Through Social Search

Evaluate how the apps perform across Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more inside of one intuitive tool to reduce the number of operational headaches that come with managing a suite of applications. Never be caught off guard in how you present your brand to the public eye by forecasting and curating a content strategy that plays off an app’s specific user base. The choice of mediums (text, video, or image), content delivery systems (platform-specific or dynamic), and presentation times is strategized to play off the high-engagement opportunities that basing your indicators around social “search” provides. On the whole, using the idea of social search to give your content a better chance of connecting with its audience is what some would call a multidisciplinary approach to operating in the digital space.